Climbing Narcissist » Road Trips

Ten Sleep

Narc — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 13:11:10 +0000

As a sport climbing area Ten Sleep, WY was lurking somewhat under the radar nationally until James Litz blew through town last year establishing a slew of 5.14s over the course of a single season. This summer, the ever-psyched Joe Kinder setup shop in Ten Sleep, and he’s been reporting back on 5.14 getting sent by both himself and local Alli Rainey as well as chronicling his never-ending search for the next ill gnar cave to bolt.

Then there is the Ten Sleep guidebook written by Aaron Huey. Oh my, what a guidebook. If you’ve seen the book you know what I’m referring to. While it does a very decent job of directing you toward climbs at all the different areas of Ten Sleep that’s not what one takes away from reading the book. From the symbols of patriotism used to denote 5 star routes to the communist/military themed cover to the almost stream of consciousness musings of Huey the book is an interesting read from cover to cover. The book may not be “safe for kids”, but it’s definitely the most unique guidebook I’ve ever seen.

With the news about Ten Sleep fresh in my mind and a copy of the guidebook in hand, Mrs. Narc and I made a brief stop in Ten Sleep over the 4th of July to see what all the fuss was about. Turns out we weren’t the only ones with this idea as evidenced by the parking lot for the Mondo Beyondo on the 4th of July.

Colorado North

So, yeah it was a bit more crowded than perhaps I expected but then again it was the 4th of July. Either way, Ten Sleep is a pretty large area so we didn’t have too many problems finding good routes to get on although many of the “classics” from the guidebook did have lines.

A small portion of the "Mondo Beyondo"

The one thing that jumped out at me on all the routes we climbed was how closely bolted everything was. I’m not saying it’s good or bad, but just be prepared to stop and clip pretty often.

Slavery Wall

Overall, the few routes we did try were quite fun and my only regret was that I wasn’t strong enough we didn’t have more time to try some of the harder routes the canyon had to offer. If I had to pick a favorite of the routes I did do I’d say that Save The Best For Last (5.11) at Wall of Denial was my favorite with School’s Out (5.10d) at Slavery Wall a close second.

There's rock everywhere in Ten Sleep Canyon

An added bonus to visiting Ten Sleep over the 4th of July is the celebration the town of Ten Sleep has throughout the weekend. The rodeo alone made the entire trip to Ten Sleep worth it. Don’t miss it if you have the chance. There’s also a very low key climber gathering that coincides with the 4th of July weekend every year that we did not get a chance to check out, but I suspect it was very enjoyable for those who did attend.

From Ten Sleep we made our way further west, stopping in the Tetons and Yellowstone before heading north to Glacier National Park. Here are some photos from the rest of our journey:

Ten Sleep from Climbing Narcissist

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This weekend Mrs. Narc and I made a quick trip to the Red River Gorge in Kentucky, leaving after 7 pm Friday and returning before 7pm on Sunday. Over 1,000 miles of driving, 16+ hours spent in the car, 1 sleep-inducing midnight traffic jam in Indianapolis and 1 night spent in a thin walled motel room next to a couple that just got married. All for a quick 1.5 days of climbing. Was it worth it??? OF COURSE!

We started Saturday at the Chocolate Factory, a crag that is home to probably the most fun 5.10 sport route at the Red you should never visit because there are no fun routes . In the afternoon we ventured over to the Motherlode where I managed to finally send a route after 9 years of very sporadic failures attempts on a variety of lines there. I almost did a 2nd before coming to my senses and falling right before the last bolt. Sunday was spent at Phantasia where I managed to monkey my way up the insanely steep jug haul known as Twinkie (5.12a, how did I never try this route before???) before hitting the road.

After spending 95% of my climbing days at the Red over the years sweating and battling the humidity it was a real treat to climb in the amazing 60 degree, sunny and windy conditions that persisted throughout the weekend. Don’t look now, but I may be turning into a sport climber…

In actual climbing news that can be augmented with video, Jimmy Webb and Brion Voges both made quick repeats of Dave Graham’s Poudre Canyon classic Circadian Rhythm (V13) over the weekend. Check out some video of their sends below. The video also includes Webb making a fast 2nd try ascent of Both Sides Of The Spectrum (V12) in RMNP’s Moraine Park.

Colorado 1 from Jimmy Webb on Vimeo.

First vid of the season!

Including:

Both sides of the spectrum v12
Canopener V11
Whats left of the bottom of my Heart V12
Tilt Sit V8
Circadian Rhythm V13

Rumblings on the interwebs seem to indicate a confluence of very strong climbers in Colorado this summer. Should be interesting to see how the alpine season shapes up!

Trip To The Red & CO Bouldering News from Climbing Narcissist

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Kentucky Champagne

Narc — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 13:45:47 +0000

Last weekend Mrs. Narc and I made the 12 hour drive south to spend a couple of days bouldering at HP40. A nagging finger injury that flared up during my trip to Hueco way back in November prevented me from doing much practice climbing before our trip, so my expectations for the trip being productive from a climbing standpoint were not high. Sadly my expectations were about right….

Despite my failure to send either of the harder problems I tried, the new guidebook pointed me toward a few easier lines I had overlooked on my previous trips. I also finally tried 2 squeeze problems I’d never attempted (somehow), Millipede and Centerpede. Millipede was too much for me, but I was able to scamper up Centerpede in short order. Neighboring Bum Boy, a problem I’ve run laps on in prior years, spit me off despite repeated efforts. This is just how things go on these types of problems I suppose.

Regardless, I find it hard to have a disappointing day of climbing at HP40 no matter how things go. How unhappy can one be when you are surrounded by one of the most dense concentrations of high quality boulder problems in the country??

While the bouldering at HP40 was certainly enjoyable, the highlight of the trip came on our drive home. Inspired by my visit to the Wild Turkey and Four Roses distilleries last year, we made a detour to check out a couple bourbon distilleries on the western end of the so-called Kentucky Bourbon Trail. Our stops on this day included Jim Beam and Maker’s Mark.

Even if you’re like Mrs. Narc and you (allegedly) can’t stand the smell of bourbon, touring these distilleries is a real treat. The combination of driving the back roads of Kentucky, visiting historic buildings and learning about the distilling process is something anyone can enjoy. If you like bourbon the free tastings are a bonus!

If you are looking for a fun detour during your next trip through Kentucky, here is how I would rank the 4 distilleries I’ve visited thus far:

Maker’s Mark – Free cookies, excellent tour, free tasting. One of the more in depth tours and the only one that shows the bottling line. Hand dipping a souvenir bottle of MM was cool even if it was wildly overpriced.
Four Roses – Unique Spanish architecture, a quality tour and 5 separate samples including 2 straight from the still. Bring a designated driver…
Wild Turkey – Cool tour but NO free samples.
Jim Beam – No tour and only 2 samples, one of which was Beam Black. Weak. Only bonus is the proximity to I-65 (roughly 10 minutes).

If you had a different experience or have been to one of the other distilleries on the trail feel free to share your experiences in the comments.

Here are a few more pictures from our trip:

Kentucky Champagne from Climbing Narcissist

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Photo Friday: Hueco Tanks & RRG

Narc — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:00:02 +0000

By popular demand, here are a few more pictures from my recent trip to Hueco Tanks. The first 3 are of a well-known problem on North Mountain, Babyface (V7), courtesy of Danielle Vennard. For whatever reason I’ve always had an attachment to this problem, and it was really the only problem I wanted to be sure and send on my trip. In a perfect world I envisioned being really fresh and flashing the problem. I do not live in a perfect world.

By the time I finally got around to trying Babyface it was our 4th day on out of 5. Keep in mind I hadn’t climbed 4 days total in the entire month leading up to the trip. I can honestly say that I have never felt so tired and sore before heading out for a day of climbing, but it’s not every day that I’m in Hueco Tanks so I decided to make the best of the day.

Knowing I had almost no skin and barely any energy to spare, my warm up consisted mostly of walking around the boulders at the Gymnasium enjoying the view. When everyone was ready, we made our way to Babyface where I was promptly shutdown by the very first move. Really shutdown.

Babyface, North Mountain – Click any picture to see a larger version

Photo: Danielle Vennard

After some work I figured out the first move only to keep punting trying to find the correct spot to grab the next crimp. To me the beauty of a problem like Babyface is that you have to try from the ground on each attempt, but that also made it quite difficult to figure out the top moves given how much skin and energy it cost me each time I left the ground.

Photo: Danielle Vennard

Eventually, I found the right spot to grab the right hand crimps, but I was too tired to get my feet high for a throw out left to a big jug. Knowing that my skin was not going to last much longer on the somewhat sharp crimps I decided to get desperate serious and stop trying to get my feet up to do the last move (like I’m trying to do in the picture below).

Photo: Danielle Vennard

I rested long enough for my skin to stop sweating and gave a proverbial “last try”. When it came time for me to get my feet up for the last move I went for broke and jumped instead. Somehow, I latched the big left hand hold in a helicoptering scream reminiscent of Obe Carrion in Free Hueco. To say I was psyched would be an understatement.

After a short break I did the comparatively much easier V7 Daily Dick Dose and called it a day since it hurt to even touch rock at that point. A day like that day really taught me a lot about what is possible even when you don’t feel great physically.

Here are a few more pictures of Kevin on some Hueco classics:

The Long Haul (V8), East Spur

El Burro (V3), East Mountain

All you need to send in Hueco Tanks

Sandboarding in White Sands National Monument

As an added bonus, here are a few pictures a reader, Stefano, sent me the other day. They just so happen to be of a route at the Red River Gorge that I have something to say about, To Defy The Laws Of Tradition (5.10 a or b, I don’t remember which).

Just about everyone I talk to thinks this route is one of the best 5.10s at the the Red, but for some reason I’ve never been a fan of the route. I like to think it’s because of the massive streak of chalk pasting every potentially usable and non-usable hold on the route, but it could also be the big whipper I once took pumping out at the anchors on a route I felt was well within my abilities. You take your pick. Thanks to Stefano for the pics!

Photo Friday: Hueco Tanks & RRG from Climbing Narcissist

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Worth The Wait

Narc — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:24:16 +0000

It only took me 10 years, but I finally climbed at Hueco Tanks a couple of weeks back. After climbing 6 out of 8 days and sampling a seemingly endless list of high quality problems I have only one thing to say: it was worth the wait.

We spent 3 days climbing on North Mountain, 2 on East Mountain and 1 on the East Spur. I tried my best not to get wrapped up in trying any single problem for an extended period of time, my main goal was simply to climb as many high quality lines in the V4-V8 range as I could. Despite having to spend the first 2 days getting back in shape, I felt like the trip was very successful. Some of my favorite problems included Moonshine Roof (V4), Hobbit In A Blender (V5), Meddle Detector (V6), Babyface (V7) and the one that got away, Ultramega (V8).

Since it was my first trip to Hueco it was also my first experience dealing with the well known regulations governing access to the park. For those that are not aware, 3 out of the 4 areas in Hueco cannot be accessed without a guide. This means you either pay $20 a day to climb with a commercial guide or you find a guide willing to take you on a volunteer tour. It may just be a matter of false perception, but it seemed to me like the 3 restricted areas held more fun lines than those found at North Mountain, the so-called “self guided” area. Coupled with the relatively high rate of $5 a day per person to camp and the cost of a trip to Hueco can get pretty steep. Of course, the fact that people jump through all these hoops to climb in Hueco should be an indication of just how good an area it is.

The other thing that really struck me while wandering around the endless corridors of boulders was the vision it took to establish many of the park’s testpieces. I think that many of us could walk up to most problems under V10 and at least visualize someone climbing the problem. Actually seeing famous problems like Nagual and Slashface in person and seeing just how improbable some of the holds are was really eye opening. To me it crystallized why many people are so interested in reading about high end ascents, especially hard first ascents. On a related note, Fred Nicole’s amazing ticklist of FAs listed in the guidebook is amazing.

Here are a few pictures from the trip, I should have video of a few problems soon. Click a picture to make it bigger.

Rocks

Narc on Sign Of The Cross

Kevin on Moonshine Roof

Ricky trying hard on Try Hard

Kevin digging in on Guns Of Navarone

Worth The Wait from Climbing Narcissist

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Tuolumne Trip 2009

Narc — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 14:00:57 +0000

I originally came up with the idea of going to Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park for a week of climbing long trad routes earlier this year during one of my frequent injury breaks from hard climbing. My reasoning at the time was that no matter what injury I was dealing with I would always be fit enough to climb easy trad. What I forgot to take into account was that Mrs. Narc and I hadn’t really climbed that many long trad routes so we weren’t even sure how much we even liked that kind of climbing in the first place.

After waking up at 4 am and embarking on a long day of travel from Milwaukee to Las Vegas to Bishop we arrived in Tuolumne with a few hours of daylight still remaining. Eager to climb anything, I thought we could run up the Northwest Books (5.6) on Lembert Dome in a couple of hours and be back at camp in time to meet some friends.

Click any photo for a larger version

Lembert Dome – Northwest Books is around the corner on the left

After a few false starts that included forgetting my belay device back at the car and being passed by a group of soloists (and a pregnant woman simul-climbing) we finally got started about the time I had hoped to be done with the route. Nevertheless, we set off for our first introduction to Tuolumne trad climbing.

The 1st pitch had some interesting laybacking up the low angle “book” while the 2nd pitch lacked anything really memorable other than the view of Tuolumne Meadows. Once at the top I decided that we would follow the walk off beta in the Super Topo to avoid looking for the rappel. On the one hand this was a mistake as it took us longer than advertised to get down, but we were treated to some amazing sunset views from the top of the dome. Feeling rather late in meeting our friends at this point, we rushed back to the car just as it got dark.

Mrs. Narc traversing toward the actual top of Lembert Dome

On top of Lembert Dome with Cathedral Peak in the background

After a weekend of sightseeing we turned our attention to our main goal for the trip, Cathedral Peak. At nearly 11,000 ft., Cathedral Peak can be seen from all over Tuolumne and it just calls out to be climbed. In fact, it called us to climb it last year but we got hopelessly lost on the approach.

Learning from our mistakes of last year, we set off at 6:30 in the morning and hiked on the correct trail until we found ourselves standing at the base of Cathedral Peak.

Upon racking up I realized that I had left our rack of nuts in the car 1.5 hours away, and I later realized that I didn’t read the cam recommendation chart in the topo correctly. This left me with 9 cams to climb the entire route which is not ideal (I don’t recommend it). Undeterred, I set off and ran it out made some adjustments to my strategy to conserve gear for building anchors.

While Mrs. Narc and I found that we didn’t necessarily get that much enjoyment from the process of climbing a long alpine trad route, it was hard to not enjoy the views along the way.

Lembert Dome and Tuolumne Meadows from half way up

Half Dome in the distance

Once on top, we decided that our dwindling water supplies and the threatening weather required a quick descent which meant forgoing the chance to climb neighboring Eichorn’s Pinnacle.

Obligatory shot of Eichorn’s Pinnacle from the top of Cathedral Peak

After what felt like an unending number of steps down we finally made it back to the car, and we quickly drove to get beer and soak our feet in the river. Glorious.

The remainder of our time in Tuolumne we did a little climbing, but we mutually agreed that we prefer the simplicity of a good day of bouldering. However, we were constantly reminding ourselves that “yeah, we stood on top of that peak out there” which was a pretty cool feeling.

Here are a few more pictures from our climbing adventures:

Tuolumne Trip 2009 from Climbing Narcissist

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Spring Break ‘09 Pt. 3: Zahnd

Narc — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 13:43:21 +0000

After getting rained out in Kentucky, tearing my LCL and climbing on many fun problems in Rocktown we finished up our trip with a brief stop at Zahnd on our way out of town. Located a short 15 minute drive over the mountain that Rocktown resides on, Zahnd is relatively small area with only a dozen or so problems listed in the topo.

Our main mission was to keep with the prevailing method of the trip, “One Shot, One Kill”, and make a quick assault on the area testpiece Harvest Moon (V8). What was to be a brief 30 minute stop to either achieve rapid success or rapid failure soon turned into a slugfest. The crux of Harvest Moon revolves around awkwardly matching a slopey rail and making a long lunge to a slopey jug. Already tired and out of skin from climbing at Rocktown earlier in the day, we were all coming agonizingly close to sticking the final jug with nothing to show for it despite innumerable attempts.

All of us except JT that is. Despite throwing in the towel earlier in the day and initially not even bringing his shoes down to the boulders, JT managed to send Harvest Moon a couple of times in only a few attempts. Nice work, sir.

After running laps on a few of the easier problems until I could barely move my arms we left for home after spending almost 2 hours at Zahnd. Not exactly the quick effort we had in mind, but it was well worth it. If you are looking for a stellar V8 or a few fun easier problems Zahnd is definitely a good addition to the bouldering at Rocktown.

Here are several pictures of our efforts, courtesy of Danny:

Harvest Moon – Narc, Danny, K-Rom in that order

Me climbing a cool red streaked arete to the right of Harvest Moon. Name?? Seemed like V2ish.

JT bear hugging the V3 Bear Hug

Spring Break ‘09 Pt. 3: Zahnd from Climbing Narcissist

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Spring Break ‘09 Pt. 2: Rocktown Pt. 2

Narc — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 12:59:40 +0000

While Rocktown is well known for The Orb, there are many other quality boulders to be climbed there. Unlike nearby HP40 which doesn’t have that many steep lines, Rocktown has plenty to choose from which is one of the main reasons I was excited to go there. Unfortunately, tearing my LCL within the first 5 problems of the trip didn’t help much in allowing me to take advantage of all the steep lines, but you would be surprised how one can adapt when there is no other alternative (besides stopping climbing…which is dumb…always).

Here are a few pictures of some of the fun problems we climbed on:

Nose Candy (V6ish)

Brown Hole (V8)

Comet Dyno (V-too far)

Croc Bloc (V5)

The Scoop (V-not hard if you are tall)

If anyone needs beta on which problems at Rocktown are best to climb with only 1 good leg, please let me know…

Spring Break ‘09 Pt. 2: Rocktown Pt. 2 from Climbing Narcissist

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Spring Break ‘09 Pt. 2: Rocktown Pt. 1

Narc — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 12:58:54 +0000

If you ask most people to identify one classic problem in Rocktown, GA, The Orb would probably be it. One of the first problems you come across on the approach to the boulders, The Orb climbs out the underbelly of a very unique looking boulder using a series of really cool holds. It also happens to hold the very attainable grade of V8 which made it that much more appealing to us. Needless to say, it didn’t take very long for our crew (minus yours truly) to begin throwing down attempts shortly after we arrived at the boulders.

Climbing out the belly of the beast

The Orb starts on relatively big holds underneath the roof pictured above. These holds lead to increasingly poor, pebbly slopers on the face of the boulder. The key to the problem is a slopey rail pictured below that must be matched before throwing your left hand up into a sort of finger slot one hold below the topout.

Hitting the slot, right hand on the slopey rail

It took a fair amount of work for everyone to work out their individual beta for how to use this hold, but bumping to make room seemed to work much better than the cross-over match.

Invalid cross-over…

On the first day of attempts I only watched. In my observing of everyone’s attempts, it was obvious that The Orb is one of those unique problems that never lets up. Once the guys figured out one move, say how best to match the slopey rail, they found the next move just as difficult to figure out. Once that was figured out it was on to the next move and so on. It wasn’t just a matter of figuring out one hard move in the middle and the sending. Each move, while not perhaps that difficult on its own, became harder than the last on link. Even the topout really never let up as one member of the group found out on repeated burns from the start (I won’t mention any names). Every hand movement, body position and foot placement had to be done just right in order to send.

Basically, The Orb looked like the perfect boulder problem, which puts it right near the top of my list whenever I get back to Rocktown.

Here are a few more pictures I took of everyone trying hard, although I missed K-Rom’s actual send.

Not the actual send, but you get the idea…

Spring Break ‘09 Pt. 2: Rocktown Pt. 1 from Climbing Narcissist

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Climbing Narcissist » Road Trips

Ten Sleep

Popular Posts & Videos For May 2010

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News & Notes

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Trip To The Red & CO Bouldering News

Kentucky Champagne

Photo Friday: Hueco Tanks & RRG

Worth The Wait

Tuolumne Trip 2009

Spring Break ‘09 Pt. 3: Zahnd

Spring Break ‘09 Pt. 2: Rocktown Pt. 2

Spring Break ‘09 Pt. 2: Rocktown Pt. 1